Dear All,

This Sunday somehow I mustered enough courage to solo the Sceudu 50 at our 40 acres farm house in Madurai. I have never flown any heli in the past. I comfortably hovered 3 tanks full. Thanks to REFLEX sim, believe me the real heli was very very close to the sim. Finally CRASHED her.

I am totally responsible for the crash as I noted that the receiver battery level was very low prior to the last flight. Somehow during the flight I completely forgot about the batttery and started forward flight and all of a sudden the battery gave away and dishoom... crash. Lucky that she escaped with minor injuries.

My carelessness is going to cost me 5000 to 7000 Rs. for the repair. But I am very happy that I could feel how the real heli is like.

Here is the video of my heli crashing...



Thanks for Watching. I will be happy to have your comments please.

Best Regards

Arun

You crashed a Heli that was on a training Gear   You are really fit to be my brother. From now on I will call you bro if you dont mind.   Coz I have done the same.

BTW Looks like the Heli lost total control of the tail. Also whats the the Configuration of the heli? Servos, engine, gyro, tail servo, governor etc?

And Welcome bro to RCI!

Good hovering. Nice video. and you got lucky nobody got hurt . Just be 100X more careful with these nitro helis ! Look forward to seeing more videos nad Welcome to the forum !

Ya, I second that, even a small 250/450 size helis can be EXTREMELY fatal if not careful or run out of luck!  >

Wow! You are so lucky! With a 40 acre farmhouse - the 7000 Rupees repair bill for $1374 Hirobo Sceadu must have been a minor bother / irritation for you . The majority of us in this forum can't dream of such princely opulence. If you can spend Rs.7000/- on a repair bill and pass it off as an experience - I wish I was in your shoes . (I guess the majority of our 1335 members would feel the same way!)

Anyway, happy flying in future and welcome to the forum. Keep posting such informative videos for us to learn from.

Cheers!

VC

which is why my signature says so  .... but Arun, dont loose heart.. keep it going... its (costly) lessons like these that teach us.

All the Best.

For the vast majority, sim and real life are significantly different.  The "fear of crash costs" (and "some fear of safety") causes the flier to get nervous big time while flying the real thing.  Add in other factors like "wind" and "less than perfect" models (as compared to the sim), and practically everyone feels that the "real thing is a whole another game" !  But there are exceptions like you, and there was another guy at our field who starting flying circuits and nose-in hovers on practically his first ever RC flight.

Regarding the crash, I am sure you have by now realized the importance of not taking shortcuts when it comes to battery power. It is easy to get carried away, but then safety is most important, and so are the cost and downtime induced by crashes.

Let us try to meet when you are in Kerala, we will try to arrange a flying session somewhere not too far from Thrissur town.

Hirobo Sceudu 50 HPM fully assembled by Mr. Irshad Anwar
OS50 Hyper Engine
JR ES539 Servos x 3
Futaba S3003 Servo x 1 for throttle
Gy401 with Futaba S9524 tail Servo
Sanyo Nicd Receiver Battery Pack 1700mah
Battery Indicator
JR Gold Switch
Exhaust Deflector
Remote Glow Plug Extension
Training Gear 50 Size
Header Tank with Metal Holder
No Governor Installed

Just wondering why many dont choose OS 55?  Correct me if I am wrong.

Dear Vinay,

Thanks for your comment bro.

Training gear is not an insurance against crash. When I started, I beleived I will never crash as I invested lot of sim time.

Here what went wrong is that in SIM you dont have to worry about the receiver battery or fuel. (I got used to.)

The tail control was lost due to dead receiver battery. When the battery dies the heli doesnt go to failsafe mode. My radio lost complete control & the heli crashed by itself, lucky that the training gear was on and it had reduced the impact of the crash. The sad part is that while going thru the heli prior to the last flight I noticed the onboard battery indicator showed that the battery level was very low, still I took a chance and decided to keep her on a low level hover, but once the heli spooled up again, the low battery warning vanished from my brain and as evident from the video I took her up all over the place.

I was also not lucky to have some experienced r/c pilot besides me as it was my first flight on a real r/c heli. Although I was not at all nervous, but short of advice.

So guys it was a costly lesson indeed. Never take any kind of chance while flying, always ensure 100% airworthiness of your equipment even before starting it.

I have ordered the replacement parts from Mr. Irshad and expect it in another 2-3 days.

Will keep you all updated.

Best Regards

Arun

Hi,

Thanks.

I will be going to Thodupuzha to attend a wedding on 22nd August and plan to stay in Thrissur on our way back for 2-3 days.

Please advice.

Thanks

Arun

Thanks for your feedback.

I spend almost 1 lac for the heli, radio & other accessories, when you are flying accidents are waiting to happen, and when it does you will have to spend money to repair it.

It is not an exception for the heli, what about people driving cars. I understand 7000 Rs. is not a small money for me also, I will have to sacrifice a lot of things to arrange that money.

It is all because of my love for the hobby and to be flying again.

Thanks

Arun

Hi All,

I am very glad to see so many replies in a short period of time.

Thank you all for watching my video and for your kind feedback.

Regards

Arun

Wish you had a Raptor... it is much easier to find parts for the same.

Hi All,

The repacement parts will reach me by the end of this week and hope to get her back in the air soon.

List of Parts Broken

Jr ES539 Servo x 1 - Broken Gear
Feathering Spindle - - Dont know whether it is bend. Still replacing as adviced in the manual after crash.
Main Shaft - Dont know whether it is bend. Still replacing as adviced in the manual after crash.
Tail Boom with Small Dents
Bent Flybar
Broken Main Blades (Stock Ones FRP)

The most expensive part is the main blades (Rs. 4500) for the Carbon Blades as the stock FRP is not available.

Remaining parts alltogether adds upto - 1700/-

This hobby is amazing, it took me 1 and half year to save money to buy this heli. Meanwhile I practiced a lot on REFLEX.

Will keep on updating.

Thanks

Arun

Mr. Irshad had called me up in the evening and confirmed that he has all parts in stock. Will be sending the same by courier in 2 days. He was very helpful and promised to guide me fix the heli.

Arun, just roll the feathering spindle/main shaft on a sheet of glass. your teapoy glass/mirror will do. if its bent, you will know. The most important thing that you may need to change is the damping rubber found around the feathering shaft (I dont know if ur heli has this, but most of them have it). Usually this also gets damaged and when you fly the heli with the same dampers, the blade wont track. That means when the heli is flying you will see 2 seperate disks for the main blades. this will cause vibrations.

Also you can use some cheap Fiber Glass / wooden  baldes till you learn. CF blades are costly and strong, so when crashed it will spoil the heli by transfering power to the main rotor. Wooden blades usually break and prevent the heli from breaking apart (in many cases).

Hi Bro,
Thanks for the information. Very useful.
I will stick to the FRP blades only till I finish learning.
Yes the sceudu has a damper rubber in the blade holder around the feathering spindle - Will replace as adviced by you.
The shaft and spindles will check for bend as adviced, will purchase anyhow not costly (Rs.500).

Thanks once again for your valuable input.

Regards
Arun

Nice hovering for the first timer Arun!!
Just looking at the video, I thought you had your hands a bit too full for a first timer. It seemed that just before the crash, when the heli came to a  nose-in position, over correction in the wrong direction was given ( my humble opinion). Try solid tail in hovering for atleast 10 tanks before doing even cyclic tests or any forward flights(with tail in, forget nose-in for now). By solid i mean the heli does not budge vertically or laterally.
I started helis 7-8 months back and am doing OK with stall turns, circuits, nose-in's etc on the trex600. I tried a G3 sim once and thought it was too unrealistic and would give a complete and wrong sense of over-confidence, so all i have learnt is without touching the sim. I have seen regular sim users crash a lot more as they tend to take short-cuts in the learning curve....and these are guys who do inverted easily on the sim but struggle to do fluid figures of 8's in real flying!!!
Just my 2 cents.

Well it depends to an extent on how you practise on the sim. Realistically practicing does help quite a bit.
On a G3/G4, try placing a couple of benches near the runway and try to land your heli in all directions on the top of the bench. thats what i do for practice ( at my level ) and it helps !

Agree, there are friends (good pilots) who swear by the sim. Different strokes for different folks i guess. I never thought they were any good. But, I have also heard from top 3D guys that it will be a must for advanced aerobatics and 3D for orientation from every possible angle.

Arun!
not sure if this makes sense, but why don't you install a Co-pilot on that heli?
I know, the accident was completely due to a different reason but there are 2 things in this world that will make a expensive heli like your to live longer and see another day and they are a Co-pilot costing around 4500 and a Quanum 2.4Ghz Telemetry System for monitoring your volt/amp/battery costing around 5000!
I guess that should be of great help!

Dorwin

Hi All,

Thanks for the response and all advices.

Believe me SIM is very useful. I find reflex to be very close to the real heli. It is how you setup the simulator to train yourself.

Before I could lay my hands on the real heli, I never knew if my sim practice is going to do any help with the real heli. And beleive me it was my first flight ever on a real heli that too without an experienced pilot. As I started and lifted the heli slightly I had to do some slight trimming myself and thats it. There is no EXPO set on the radio.

I hovered 2 and half tanks and thats when I noticed that the battery is about to give up. Somehow like a kid I thought I will do a baby hover, as I lifted her up again, the battery thing gone off my mind and thats it.

I can do nose in without any problem.

The real difference between a sim and heli is the fear factor. Fear of crash, repairs, spare parts, money etc. etc., which is not there while you are on a sim.

Fear alone will nullify all the time you spend on a sim. Somehow I am glad that I could overcome that.

I crashed because of my mistake(blunder), lucky that it didnt injure any body. I will be more careful in future.

When the battery goes, you have absolutely no control whatsoever.

The sceudu is a very stable heli. I dont think I will need a co-pilot. Regarding the battery monitor, I will be very very very careful.

I am indeed very happy that my sim helped me very much.

Thank you all once again for your valuable feedback.

Cheers

Arun

Well in that case, I rest my case ...all the best!!

Arun,
One more suggestion. Since you are learning by yourself, please follow the steps as on this website :
http://www.rchelicopterweb.com/LearningToFly/LearningToFly.htm

I think it really helps to go step by step. Doing Nose in hovers is seriously not recommended for you yet .

Good luck and keep us posted via more pictures/ videos !